Teen wakes up from 10-month-old coma with no memory of COVID-19



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Joseph Flavill has no recollection of testing positive for coronavirus last year – nor does he remember anything of what happened in the past 11 months.

The 19-year-old Briton has been in a coma since March 1, 2020, after suffering a head injury when the student was hit by a car while walking down the street of his hometown, Staffordshire Live reported for the first time Monday. It would take three weeks at the end of March before the UK enters its first national pandemic lockdown.

“We also don’t know how well he understands that his accident happened before the first lockdown, and it’s almost like he’s slept through the entire pandemic,” said Sally Flavill Smith, Joseph’s aunt. , in a press release.

Much of Flavill’s family have not been allowed to see him in person due to pandemic security restrictions at Adderley Green, a rehabilitation center where he was transferred after he woke up in the general hospital from Leicester, where he has been released since last year.

“How do you explain the pandemic to someone who has been in a coma?” asked Smith, whose nephew has also tested positive for COVID-19 twice – once unconscious and again during rehabilitation – and has recovered.

“We try to keep things as simple as possible,” Smith also told The Guardian. “We don’t really have time to get into the pandemic very much – that just doesn’t feel real, does it? When he can actually have the face-to-face contact, it will be an opportunity to try to explain to him what happened.

For now, the family are visiting Flavill via video calls, although in December he got a brief visit to the house to celebrate his 19th birthday with his mother, Sharon Priestley – but wearing personal protective equipment. and staying at a safe social distance.

Although far from fully recovered, Flavill’s motor and cognitive functions are slowly returning, Smith said. “We still have a long way to go, but the milestones he has taken over the past three weeks have been absolutely incredible.

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